Going Rogue

Drew Hayes

2016 • 435 pages

Ratings24

Average rating4.3

Adventuring is a costly affair, and while the tolls are often paid in blood, gold can drain away just as quickly. The party’s trek out of Solium and across the lands of Alcatham has left them with only a handful of gold between them. Fortunately, they have drawn near Camnarael, Alcatham’s capital, where all manner of quests--and rewards--await.

But all is not as expected in the capital. Unusual occurrences have been happening throughout Camnarael: figures in the shadows making unsavory bargains, attackers harassing innocent parishioners, and adventurers from all over the land gathering to partake in a Grand Quest offered by the royal family. Most curious of all are the rumors that speak of a strange artifact serving as the reward for this rare and legendary quest... an artifact that sounds just a bit too familiar to the former NPCs.

Genres

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Series

Featured Series

5 primary books

#3 in Spells, Swords, & Stealth

Spells, Swords, & Stealth is a 5-book series with 5 released primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by Drew Hayes.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Mer Barr

I agree with Rob, one of the best in the series so far.

July 9, 2020

Rob

Executive Summary: As the title would indicate this book focuses heavily on rogues which is definitely right up my alley. This series continues to be a lot of fun, and I'm eager to see where the overarching story will end up.

Audiobook: Roger Wayne does another fantastic job as a narrator. He does a variety of voices adding that little extra something to the audio book that makes it a great option for reading this book.

Full Review
In D&D and most fantasy games, I've always favored Rogues. My stupid amount of playtime on my World of Warcraft rogue can attest to this fact. So it wasn't a surprise to me that I've enjoyed this book the most of the three so far.

The rogue training is awesome, and I wish my D&D rogue had done something nearly so interesting for his backstory. I'd love to see some aspects of this incorporated into class quest lines in WoW as well.

The writing is funny, with a lot of inside jokes to pen & paper RPG players to enjoy, that may go over the heads of those who haven't played. That shouldn't turn you away though, as Mr. Hayes has a great set of characters for you to love (or hate in the case of the Dudebro players).

The three interconnected stories with the notion of our world and the world of Spells, Swords and Stealth being connected by magic artifacts continues to scratch my cyberpunk itch, but in a largely fantasy setting.

Thistle & Co (The NPCs) continue to be me favorite story to follow, but Randal's group offer quite a bit to the story as well. And then there is our notorious group of asshole players, who I spent the entire book rooting against yet again.

There were some really interesting developments to the overarching plot-line that has me really looking forward to the next book in the series. I'm really interested to see where Mr. Hayes takes this next.